So I am back from the fantastic Las Vegas………..Viva indeed. I love that place, there is always something going on there and the atmosphere the place exudes is fantastic, the gamblin’ and the drinkin’ are of course added bonuses. Don’t let the piccie fool you though, I really wanted a cool piccie of the chips so I think I had that amount for about 20 mins in total before it went right back to the casino.
We went to the Grand Canyon for a night too, after spending just 5 minutes there it’s not hard to understand why the Indians believed in spirits of the air and earth etc……the place just takes your breath away

They have been reintroducing condors to the canyon for the last 10 years or so and to see these beautiful birds soaring high over the canyon is truly awesome…….in every sense of the word. The pic however shows a raven basking on a precipice the condors were to quick for me and my incredibly slow camera.

We went pony trekking through the forest and were lucky enough to see coyote…..cowboy saddles are rough on the knees though and I was glad to get off my horse Shotgun after the 2 hour trek.

So I am very sad to be back, although one more night of buffet could have finished me off for good so it’s probably for the best.

In crafting news I’m craftacular……….yaaaaaay. I was incredibly lucky to be selected for the Craftacular fair in Madison. I am thrilled about this but incredibly nervous, I always feel unworthy when placed with crafty types, I can’t explain it properly but I start to question everything I do……like I have no packaging and proper sales stuff, oh and my business cards suck so I feel inferior…………sigh I guess I have to get over it. Anyway I’m going to be busy, busy, busy as I want to make loads of stuff for the 2 day event.

I finished a new critter…….

It’s Odie………Garfield was just looking to content here without his annoying buddy.

No, no silly I didn’t get a dog…….can you imagine 3 cats and a dog…….they’d be taking me away in a white van and putting me in a room with lovely padding on the walls.

Anyway here she is

She took me a while to figure out but I’m quite pleased with how she turned out.  I’m sure she’s the first of many.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a lovely woman to make her a pink panther……..yaaaaaay I thought….. but it was not that simple. You see the pink panther she wanted me to make had to be compatible with this bed spread

Hmmmmmm…………..now this was slightly tricksy as my pink wool roving is very pink and my original pink panther (the one she saw and fell in love with) would clash horribly with this duvet………what to do, what to do……..hmmmmmm

Well at first I thought it can’t be done……….then I though hang on, how dumb am I? (don’t answer that) That’s what etsy is for and after a couple of days of trawling through listings for pink roving I found the perfect hand dyed pink roving from Hanks in the hood.

So it has a lot more fuschia and magenta tones than my bubblegum pink roving and anyway long story short here he is the pink panther Alison’s pink panther……

So what do you think? good match for the bedding or what? It brought back my old working days of Skynear and Co where I had to help customers pick the colour schemes of sofas and wall paints (and everything else in their home). Anyway it was fun to have the additional challenge and I’m glad he worked out so well.

So I’ve read on numerous sites from EKRA to Softies central that the whole forest friends, owls and gnomes etc. is out. Yup over (personally I was never in with them in the first place) While I find this hard to believe it really is so,  I decided to think of what could possibly take their place in crafty folks hearts and decided to put forth the Koala bear.

This is Madison.  Named because I bought the wool roving from the Madison farmers market from a quirky woman who I forgot to ask what kind of wool it was…………dammit.   While I personally would love to see Kangaroo, Koalas and wallabees being the next big thing I doubt it will happen.

In other news I got tagged……..I’ve never been tagged before but Connie of clothmatters got me (I really should run faster next time ; )   So I have to come up with a word that reflects me from the letters of my name……..Hmmmmm I’m really not good at this sort of thing but here goes.

L     –  Lazy  (oh I’m so lazy I will put stuff of forever in order to sit around on my arse all day)

I      –  incoherent  (I’m Scottish I think very few people ever really understand a word I am saying)

S     –  silly   (speaks for itself really)

A    –  apathetic  ( about most things)

There so now you know a little bit more about me……..but maybe not my best qaulities,  maybe I will share those some other time.  Thanks Connie for tagging me.

Another critter in the bag…….teehee critter bags maybe I should look into that…….hmmmmm.  Well anyway here he is,  everyone’s favourite cynical,  lasagne loving,  Odie hatin’,  fat cat………

Garfield

I loved Garfield as a kid,  probably because he had such an ideal lifestyle  ; )

And other that that not to much going on over here in the stabby world,  although I did get Lewis (the Himalayan kitten) to be the  spokesmodel for Ekra’s cat toy rattlers.  Long story very short  I bought those crazy looking cat toys toys from a lovely woman at the Madison market…….and the boys just went crazy for them,  so of course I had to get more for them (inevitably the more they love something the quicker it’s destroyed or goes “missing in action” ) and I also had to get some for my friends cats (ok it’s official I’m a crazy cat person).    Anyway I sent a customer approval photo for Emily and she put Lewis on her blog……..yaaaaaaay  look Ekra hearts happy cats.

Well I finished little Emlin completely, and thought I’d share him finished with you guys.

So as you can see I made little Emlin a fishing rod from a little twig, and he caught a little silver trout that is still hanging at the end of his line. If you want to read his story click on meet my critters he is waaaaaaay down the bottom and his story is all there.

There has been so much rain here in the good ole midwest,  it’s starting to get deppressing.  I think there has been a thunderstorm every night, and seeing as how it’s not that much longer till the nights start getting darker earlier, I demand that the rain stops immediatly. Oooh I hope that works,  if not for me then for my big,  stupid,  old pussycat……….thunder terrifies him,   but when it’s everynight he’s scurrying off to hide it’s starts to get a little sad.

Anyway what have I been up to besides bitching about the weather? Well I made this little guy….

He’s still not finished yet…I want to go and get a stick for a fishing rod for him to have behind his back……maybe even give him a little fish on the end of it, we will see,  and I still haven’t though of his name either.  He is completely different to any of my other critters,  and to be honest I am not a huge fan of gnomes……but I think making the toadstool pins had the idea of him niggling away at me, so who am I to disagree.

I finished with my new Art-0-Mat project……..yaaaaay!!!

I love doing stuff for the Art-o-Mat and it’s really funny to think where my little critters will wind up and with whom they will reside, but after making about 30 of them I start to wish I could be done now. (I like to try and send at least 50)

Anyway I made different series of critters from the last ones which were the mouse, cat and frog. This time I went with a Monkey, a Snake and a Lion. I am really pleased with how they turned out I just hope people like them.

I had the strangest weekend last weekend. My husband entered the Dairyland Dare in Wisconsin. He is a crazy single speed nut and wrote about his experience here if you are into that kind of thing……..I am not. I am not being mean (well maybe a lttle) but I really hate bikes and everything about them, and getting up at 3 am on Saturday morning to drive Markie to Wisconsin for the 5 am race start didn’t help to endear myself to them any either. It also meant that I had the joy of getting to Madison at just before 7am to wander zombie like around the farmers market.

I did snag some fantastic bargains in urban outfitters though (I love their half off all sale item sales)

I got this for $10.00

It’s really, really cool and I have wanted it for a while but it’s normally $30.00.   I love all the kid robot stuff and it features them and other cool vinyl collectibles

and this for $4.00

It certainly lives up to it’s name. I can’t wait to make the bunnies.

I also hit up The glitterworkshop and finally bought the T-shirt I have coveted since the first time I went in there…….

How can you not love a tee that features devil kitty bum?

Anyway that was my weekend…….How was yours?

Another new creation……..meet Tippy the hedgehog.  I love her spikes.  I will put her in my etsy sore as soon as I can take a decent piccie of her.   She looks cool in person but  I’m a dork with the camera…….patoooey!!!

I’m so excited as Carol at the art-o-mat let me know the last of my stabby critters were sent to the Whitney museum of art in NYC……waaaaaah that’s thrilling,  I’m in the Whitney!!!! ok,ok…….not “in” the Whitney but  in the art-o-mat machine that is inside the Whitney……..that still counts to me.  Actually the fact that they are in New York is just as exciting to me…..I am starting my new art-o-mat project asap……….I’ve already done a few  a monkey and a snake and a lion is in the works…..

I’ll share them with you soon.

I made these cute little pins for my etsy store

I am really happy with how they turned out very cute particularly the cherries

It’s nice to have little things in the shop, and I’m thinking these little pins are going to be appearing on everything I own……

Going to Chicago on Saturday to check out this place Renegade Handmade.  I never knew this place existed and can’t wait to skeck it out……probably won’t be as cool as The Glitter Workshop  in Madison though but as you know I am all about the artsy fartsy craft stores so will have to go.